Edgar Cayce's Tales of Ancient Egypt. John Van Auken

was the laid-back passivity of their leader, King Raai (pronounced Raa-ee). He had become old and weary of the demands of rulership and thus, surrendered much of his power to the people, wanting to be left alone with his personal pursuits. Even when petitioned by his people to build up the defenses of the country and create a defense plan against the northern mountain invaders, King Raai simply refused to do so. However, he did call for a meeting with the invading king to discuss terms for peaceful co-existence of the two populations. During a series of these meetings, King Raai became enamored with one of the more beautiful Ararat women, seeking her company and companionship rather than actively participating in detailed meetings about the country and co-rulership. King Arart, seeing this native king’s disinterest in power, might, and rulership, concluded that his clan could just march into the heart of the Black Land and take over. And that is just what he did, but not violently. Amazingly, the natives put up little to no resistance. That is until the new landlords set up laws and taxes.

      In the telling of this story, Cayce sadly stated that King Raai “gave over the activities of the land for the beauty of a woman.” But paradoxically, Cayce found some good in King Raai, noting that he originally had “brought to that land the study of the relationships of man to the Creative Energy” and that his disposition against bloodshed and war was admirable. In this current situation, this led him to seek a peaceful solution, even though he got lost in the arms of the beautiful Ararat woman, leaving his people at the mercy of King Arart. Cayce even noted that this disposition of King Raai was not simply submission but was based in his principle of nonviolence and that this disposition “became the basis for the studies of the Prince of Peace.” Curiously, Raai’s peace principle so affected the invading Ararat people that they established schools in the land to help both tribes better understand one another.

      This is not to say that all of the people of Ararat agreed with their king. Many were very upset about this, wanting instead to drive the natives back into the Nubian hills from whence they came. In an effort to temper these feelings, King Arart quickly arranged for special educators to go throughout his tribe explaining the ideal of peaceful co-existence and its benefits to the clan in this land of plenty for everyone. These educators were successful, except for a few pockets of discontent and violence.

      There was roughly a three-year settling-in period that followed the initial invasion and terms of peace. During this time it was clear that the natives did not seek to establish order, laws, or governmental structure. They did not want to organize the labor force and talent of their people. They enjoyed the bounty of their land and its sunshine and fair weather. Conversely, the northern mountain people were intent on building a rich culture guided by high standards and driven by specific goals. The Ararats wanted to develop the resources of this land: its mountain minerals, gems, and gold, the energy of its great river as well as the power of the people’s labor and skill. King Arart began establishing laws, developing an infrastructure, creating schools and training centers, and organizing production teams. But he also used the ever-popular means by which a society builds and sustains itself: he raised taxes. Tensions rose between the two very different peoples.

      Curiously, among the natives was a scribe-sage who explained to his people the aims of the Ararat rulers, encouraging his people to participate and invest themselves in a united effort. The young scribe-sage traveled around his people’s communities explaining the mental and spiritual ideas that drove the invaders to do what they were doing, describing their values and philosophies, and how they wanted cultural and artistic development as well as wealth building. The Ararat people were not a community of leisure and materialism, as the natives were.

      News of this native scribe’s teachings reached the ear of King Arart and his councilors. They demanded regular briefings on the scribe’s teachings, concerned about his potential to become the natives’ missing leader, replacing distracted Raai. It quickly became obvious that this scribe-sage was articulate, clever, and growing in power and influence among his people. Thus, in another clever decision, King Arart appointed his young, bright, and energetic son to be acting king while Arart stepped into the background, retaining a powerful role on the Inner Council. In a move reminiscent of his father’s peaceful coexistence, the newly appointed young king selected the native scribe-sage to become councilor on the Ruling Council, raising him from scribe to high councilor. To further establish the scribe’s position in the ruling party, the young king changed the name of the scribe to Aarat (pronounce ah-rat), thus making him one of the overseeing Ararats.

      With the blending of the two peoples through these wise moves with the influential native scribe-sage, the young king then appointed his father’s favorite seer Ra-Ta to the post of High Priest of all the land and peoples.

      Some time after these moves, a migrating group of Atlanteans arrived directly from Poseidia, the last vestige of Atlantis to sink. The Inner Council of the Black Land decided to include some of these Atlanteans on the Governing Council. However, a few of these Atlanteans tried briefly to dominate the Council but were quickly moved off into lesser roles while more cooperative Atlanteans were appointed in their place. Now the land had three groups of people cooperating for the good of all. Eventually, others would come, even people from faraway Zu. The old Ararat king, the young king, and their Inner Council accepted leaders from each group that arrived to serve on the Governing Council, making early Egypt a most unusual nation. As the word of this cooperative governance spread around the renewing planet, many tribes sent emissaries to see and report on this strange and rare arrangement.

      With the Governing Council established, the culture grew. This was not a huge population of millions as we are used to today. A few thousand people composed the entire community of budding Egypt. In fact, the entire planet’s population was very small in comparison with today’s. Cayce actually gave the number to be 133 million! This is an amazingly small number given today’s nearly seven billion population.

      The Cayce readings tell how there were no families, as we know them today. The people lived in groups. Many of the females of the tribes were housed for the evening in buildings connected with the temples while many of the males were housed in buildings connected with the palaces. The females were the channels of incarnating souls to grow the nation while the males were the muscle to run, build, and defend the society. The living quarters were laid out in tiered layers, like a step pyramid. Each hall had three-to-four-tiered floors. The private sleeping rooms were small, monastic-like cells, 7′ x 9′ with 8′ to 10′ ceilings. All items, such as blankets, rugs, and linens, were handmade.

      These tiered halls of private rooms were connected to huge chambers in the center of the structure for group gatherings assembled for the purposes of education, exercise, special ceremonies, services, and recreation. There were special halls and chambers for conceiving, birthing, and raising children—these were very active in those times for growing the population was a high priority. There were also special halls and chambers for initiations into the sacred teaching and ceremonies. There were halls for conducting the training to produce skilled workers, artisans, and educators needed to build and sustain this growing society. According to Cayce, the buildings were designed and built to demonstrate the three types of relationships: individuals to individuals, individuals to the creative forces through personal attunement to the divine and cosmic forces, and masses of individuals to the creative forces during group gatherings for attunement. God was an integral part of everyday life, as revealed in the extant carvings, paintings, and writings we have of the ancient Egyptians.

      According to Cayce, Ra-Ta’s spiritual focus and the king’s secular focus allowed for the first intentional and cooperative separation of church and state. Cayce said that each person received one gold piece for a day’s work, from the king to the growers of grain. All shared equally. There was a national spirit and purpose among these early people, despite some differences in ideas and purposes.

      Ra-Ta oversaw the building of temples while the king oversaw the building of palaces, monuments, dwellings, and storehouses. The young king opened mines in the mountains of Nubia and as far away as Ophir (biblically called Kadesh, today called Persia or Iran). These mines brought huge quantities of gold, silver, iron, lead, zinc, copper, tin, and the